Michael Lyons was born in Mill Road Hospital on the 8th of December 1951 and was educated initially at Gillmoss RC Primary School in Croxteth and then at the all-boys' De La Salle School, Carr Lane East, Croxteth, Liverpool. Here, under the guidance of Dave Hart his teacher, Mike lifted the Universe, Echo and Martindale Cups in successive years. He spent much of his
childhood on the terraces at Goodison Park with his father and brother and recalls "Me and Joseph would catch the
44D bus on matchdays to make sure we were at Goodison Park when the
gates opened so we could dash to the old scoreboard. We'd
be in there dead early, and we'd run to sit in the old box where they
changed the scores. We'd watch the game from
there. They won the League 1962-63. Alex Young, great player." Mick knew no different than being committed to
Everton and signed for them as as a professional in 1970 after serving an apprenticeship at the club, cleaning the boots of Ball, Kendall and Harvey. Going through the junior ranks and into the Reserves as a
centre-forward. Mick made his first-team debut in 1971 against Nottingham Forest and went on to become an Everton hero, being named as an Everton Giant at the Club's 10th Annual End of Season Awards in May 2015.
With the club having David Johnson on their books in that position, his progress limited opportunities for Mick in that position and prompted
his conversion into a centre-half, when now as a defender by trade, he would regularly be pushed forward for the final 10 minutes of games when the Blues were in search of a goal. It allowed him to score 59 times during his 473 appearance for the Club, a large number of which were spent as Club captain. Both
Billy Bingham and Gordon Lee deployed him as an emergency
centre-forward and he even finished the 1973-74 season as leading
scorer with nine goals. While he was never the world's most gifted footballer, admitting as
much himself, his wholehearted commitment to the Everton cause won
over all but the harshest of his critics. Once quoted as saying he would "run through a brick wall for Everton", those words epitomised the attitude of a player who led by example and one who was unfortunate to finish his career without amassing any major honours, having appeared just five times for England U23 and gaining one England 'B' cap.
In 1982 though, having lost his first-team place to Billy Wright, he left in August that year for Sheffield Wednesday. Howard Kendall had informed Mick that Jack Charlton had made a bid to sign him for 'the Owls' so, realizing that the writing was on the wall as regards his Toffee career, he went to meet the Yorkshire club and having agreed in principle to join them he travelled back to Merseyside in tears. Mick also had a spell as player-manager at Grimsby Town and after leaving Grimsby, he later coached in Brunei and Australia and served in that capacity for Everton under the ill-fated Colin Harvey reign in the late 1980's.
In the air Mick was incredibly competitive, and brave enough to dive in head-first among the flailing studs, indeed he scored perhaps his most famous goal for Everton when diving amongst Norman Hunter's flying boot for a header in a victory over champions Leeds United during the 1974-75 campaign. Bill Shankly after leaving Liverpool would be a regular visitor to Bellefield. Mick ran a Boys football team whilst an Everton player and usually on a Monday morning Shankly would enquire as to their results as well as offering advice on the performances of the Toffees first team. The captain of Mick's Kids team during the mid-1970s was future Liverpool player Sammy Lee. In 2022 the family confirmed that the Everton great had been diagnosed with dementia.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/09/merseyside-for-sport-john-conteh.html
No comments:
Post a Comment